With every new year comes a new hope for attaining the elusive peace we all long for. It’s a time when many of us ask ourselves and one another why something so simple, so desperately needed, and so seemingly in our power to create, remains so absent from the reality that is our lives, year […]
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Nothing in human life, from birth all the way through to death, is even close to the way I would have designed it, had I been endowed with the omnipotence of the gods. Although admittedly, there is much beauty, truth and goodness to be found in this world, if I had the power of creation in my hands, I would have eliminated all that was not beautiful, truthful and good, so that life on Earth would have been perfect in every way. […] Read More

If we may say so ourselves, and we do, we human beings are an extraordinarily brilliant species. The self-proclaimed kings and queens of Planet Earth, we have reigned supreme, unchallenged, with absolute power over all other life forms, for tens of thousands of years. If our minds had been perfectly sane and our hearts free […]
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Throughout the month of August, in the middle of Times Square, directly above the Good Morning America studios, and just a few blocks from the New York Times, a billboard was visible overhead that few could pretend not to notice. Amongst a barrage of self-promotion by corporate interests seeking personal gain, for four full weeks, one message of hope stood proud and powerful in its uncompromising […]
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We human beings are a complex, multi-faceted species. The consciousness that motivates us is a dichotomy in which a battle rages between the violent, angry, unreasonable, selfish, jealous, greedy, cruel part of our nature and the gentle, compassionate, kind, reasonable, just, empathetic, generous part. Whichever part we choose to nurture is revealed, moment to moment, in our […]
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Lyra Alves, Belgium (Brazilian living in Belgium for 15 years) I was brought up in a very carnivorous environment in Brazil. My father strictly made sure my brother and I ate all kinds of foods. I remember my brother crying, looking at his food on the table, saying that the chicken on his plate was […]
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I’m a vegan nurse and I am also 65 years of age. Becoming vegan at 50 makes me a very late starter. I am vegan for ethical reasons, recognising that animals are beautiful, thinking, feeling creatures just like us. I am also a wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. As an ex-farmer, I have done many years penance and grieving for the animals I used and abused.

In four years as a vegan, I’m still grappling with the fact that I have yet to have a single authentic conversation with a non-vegan on the issue of using animals for food. Those who choose veganism often filter their true feelings, and here’s why: Vegans tend to be ridiculed by society. It’s clear in […]
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It started 46 years ago, when I was 12 years of age. My older brother pointed out to me that the ‘tongue’ on my plate was the tongue of a cow, and that meat, in general, was actually a dead animal. I took my first step into rebelling against society and rejected the practice of eating animals. There […]
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